How much money would it take for you to comfortably quit your job permanently, if you won the lottery?

$5. I hate my job. Even though I am retired I would like to quit again. Just to get rid of the bad memories. I would like to have $500 million dollars I would try to start my own research facility for curious dreamers and inventors.

$500,000

A couple of million would let me retire.

I could retire on £150,000.

$10 million ought to do. I can struggle by with 5.

Hubs and I won $30k and it was gone quickly ($4k taxes), so I’m thinking it’d take at least $100k to quit, which would give me a year or two to piddly-fart around and find another job. Of course a mil or more and I could retire to Mexico or someplace without snow.

Assuming an inflation rate of 3% and an initial yearly consumption of, let’s say, 24000€, and if I want it to last for 80 years, about 8 million €.

We are currently living on approximately $80,000 a year, and providing financial assistance to 10 other family members, counting parents and children. I think we could make do with anything over 1 million, although my husband says it would take 5 million for us to be comfortable for all our remaining years.

$20 million.

£150k, probably £100k.

$4 million at least.

I live in the SF Bay Area, so I would need $7.5 million. I would need enough to buy a nice (not huge) house and a nice vacation home at Lake Tahoe, and put enough away for an annuity to pay property taxes and house upkeep.

I’m in a similar boat to you, so 4-million would do it.

Frankly though, I’d be willing to give semi-retirement a shot at 1-million. I’d just teach a couple of classes per term adjunct and leave the full-time gig.

At a 5% rate of return, an investment of $2 million would provide an income of $100,000 per year. That seems like a very comfortable amount. The lower the available interest, the higher the principal needed for the same return, of course.

Add to that enough to purchase some property away from the city and set aside something significant for family members. And I would definitely like to be able to support a few organizations with generous donations.

Taking all that into account, I think I could make do with about $5 million, although $8 million would be noticeably nicer.

It would depend largely on how prudently you handled a large influx of cash.

Many big lottery winners blow their winnings and end up both unemployed and poorer than before.

Consider the tax advantages or disadvantages in taking it in a lump sum as opposed to over a twenty-year payout [which may not be relevant if you are over 70 or have a terminal illness—although you could get hit by a bus next year]

Don’t throw away your present life style, just modify it.
Hire a financial advisor.

Well this depends on several circumstances. Chances are if I like my job, and the people I work with, I might say I’d be willing to leave it for around a million dollars. Now if I don’t care for my job, or the people that I work with I may go as low as ten thousand. 10k would allow me plenty of time to get another job anyways, and save my own health from stress. In fact I’ve done the latter already, but obviously I’m not gonna retire at 10k.

At 40, as a single person without a family or kid/s to support, and as someone who’s not very materialistic, I could probable retire on a million dollars, or maybe much less.

Safe savings in CDs and such only yield around 1.35% or so right now. On a $1 million deposit, that’s $13,500 per year not figuring APY, which I think would only add like $300 per year. I’d need something north of $5 million to retire and live comfortably without dipping into principal. That would be a must, as I plan to live forever.

Over 50% of the millionaire pro athletes go bankrupt within 5 years of retiring. I would bet the same holds true of million dollar lottery winners because they don’t bother to do the math.

@Paradox25, where do you live that $10k would give you plenty of time to get another job? Around here (Silicon Valley), you’d better be prepared to survive for a good year and a half between jobs if you get laid off. Some people who lose or give up their jobs are never going to find another one. It’s pretty hard to get hired if you’re within ten or fifteen years of the customary retirement age, although of course some people do it.

$3 million after taxes.

@Jeruba I’ve done this before several times. I’ve already mentioned some of the reasons above like not having dependents to support along with living a more reserved lifestyle. I live in a very cheap rural area, and my house is already paid off. I have a skill that’s in demand too where I live (though I have to drive a little bit to get to them), and for the most part I usually don’t have a difficult time finding a job. I did struggle a few years ago to find work when my plant closed down, but outside of that one time finding work has usually been easy for me.

I want enough to survive until I get a degree, then expatriate to some other country. A few million should do it.

I like my job. The only thing I would do different would be to reduce my commitment of time and intensity.
If I had no purpose, I would get sick and die. And my job is a fulfilling purpose.

$50,000 per year. I live quite frugally and having that much money would be a lot more than I have now.

I was pondering this also. I didn’t buy a ticket in that drawing, but I sometimes shop in the supermarket where the other NJ winner bought theirs. My mother is in the county where this group won, and i was wondering what will happing if a good number of them quit.

With $3.8 million, I probably wouldn’t retire right away, I might cut back my hours a bit, though. $5 million or more after taxes would probably get me to quit immediately.

I might be able to swing it with 4 million with probably 2 million after taxes. Pay off my debts, and my kids and buy them each a home and pay off my moms home, get a car and start off a new business or invest wisely.
Or 10 million, with with 5 going to taxes, and pay off as I said above only not invest, and buy diamonds and live off the next 40 years or so off of 75000 dollars a year. If the economy really start to tank, I will move to a cheap island. No sweat.

I love my job but it’s not a real career (meaning even though lots of people where I work have done it there whole life there is zero ability for promotion, or professional acknowledgement). I really want to go to graduate school, so I can actually do what I studied for my bachelor’s. I wouldn’t want to be jobless (I’m 25), but as working parttime is very doable in my hopefully future career, it would be nice to only work 25 or 30 hours a week.

Then I have to take into account what salary I’d like to live at. I currently make so little that even though I work full-time and live at home half of my pay goes just to required stuff (which for me isn’t even that much – rent/utilities, phone, and loans). I almost never buy anything outside of what I must. At my pay, even going out for a $10 dinner once a month is hard to justify.

I also can’t drive, so I like to hire a driver, to forever end the annoying issue of having terrible public transportation. And I’d like to buy a house at some point.

What I’m getting at is, as a single, childless not established person it’s hard to say X would be enough because so much of my life is up in the air. I think the me of two years ago would say well you only need enough to hold you over till you can move on to that career you want, but the current me has spent enough time unemployed to know nothing is guaranteed, and we never know when life is going to give us more than we bargained for.

About twenty million – give or take.

@ETpro you are only thinking of interest. The theoretical person is 40 and single. No kids to worry about. The sensible thing to do would be to invest for the long term in initially an aggressive stocks/bond mix and sell off enough every half year to provide a reasonable income, and over the years gradually make the investment mix less aggressive.

The numbers are just plain crunchable, you can even do them on Yahoo finance. Figure how much you need for the lifestyle you want [within reason]/how much the investments generate in income/how much the drawdowns reduce income and project for a life of about 95 years.

Goal: die broke with your only remaining asset your home [and that can be leveraged in declining years by reverse mortgage].

@anartist I’m closing in on 70, so my investment strategy would be very different. It would be aimed at preserving a good nest egg for my wife, my 2 surviving kids, my 13 grandchildren and one great grandchild.